[mschuster91]

Yeah, but how many scriptkiddies use a VPN or apply for cloaks? Next to zero for most of them.

Also, I bet my behind that the NSA has epxloits for the most popular IRCd's, so that only tor/vpn are a real problem for them (and besides, even these connections can be shot with TCP FIN injections).

[dmix]

Actually the vast majority of script kiddies and "cyber criminals" use VPNs. The problem is that they have a habit of accidentally connecting to servers without always turning on their VPNs. They lack professional discipline, not toolsets.

[corin_]

On plenty of networks (it's been years since I was on IRC, so unsure which IRCd's support it, but iirc both Quakenet and Freenode do in slightly different ways) even support host-masking as long as you are auth'd on the network - of course, IRCops could still find out, so a subpoena (or hacking into the servers) could see it, but prevents /whois from telling you at least.

(I think some networks even partially hide your IP by default anyway)

[baldfat]

Scriptkiddies have very good how to guides and they are always shown to hide their IP address.

[caf]

I tend to doubt that there's many exploits out there for the popular ircds, because IRC is such a hostile environment - ircd is probably one of the most battle-hardened codebases out there.